The advantage of the approach taken by the present invention is to produce single immunogens containing protective antigens from a range of pathogens. Such chimeras greatly simplify the development of combination vaccines, in particular, with the view ultimately to produce single dose multivalent vaccines. Multivalent vaccines are currently made by separately producing pathogens and/or their pertinent antigens and combining them in various formulations. This is a labour intensive, costly and complex manufacturing procedure. In contrast, the availability of a single immunogen capable of protecting against a range of diseases would solve many of the problems of multivalent vaccine production. Several chimeric immunogens of the type provided herein may be combined to decrease the number of individual antigens required in a multivalent vaccine.
Human Parainfluenza virus types 1,2,3 and Respiratory syncytial virus types A and B are the major viral pathogens responsible for causing severe respiratory tract infections in infants and young children. It is estimated that, in the United States alone, approximately 1.6 million infants under one year of age will have a clinically significant RSV infection each year and an additional 1.4 million infants will be infected with PIV-3. Approximately 4000 infants less than one year of age in the United States die each year from complications arising from severe respiratory tract disease caused by infection with RSV and PIV-3. The WHO and NIALD vaccine advisory committees ranked RSV number two behind HIV for vaccine development while the preparation of an efficacious PIV-3 vaccine is ranked in the top ten vaccines considered a priority for vaccine development.
Safe and effective vaccines for protecting infants against these viral infections are not available and are urgently required. Clinical trials have shown that formaldehyde-inactivated and live-attenuated viral vaccines failed to adequately protect vaccinees against these infections. In fact, infants who received the formalin-inactivated RSV vaccine developed more serious lower respiratory tract disease during subsequent natural RSV infection than did the control group. [Am. J. Epidemiology 89, 1969, p. 405–421; J. Inf. Dis. 145, 1982, p. 311–319]. Furthermore, RSV glycoproteins purified by immunoaffinity chromatography using elution at acid pH induced immunopotentiation in cotton rats. [Vaccine, 10(7), 1992, p. 475–484]. The development of efficacious PIV-3 and RSV vaccines which do not cause exacerbated pulmonary disease in vaccinees following injection with wild-type virus would have significant therapeutic implications. It is anticipated that the development of a single recombinant immunogen capable of simultaneously protecting infants against diseases caused by infection with both Parainfluenza and Respiratory syncytial viruses could significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by these viral infections.
It has been reported that a protective response against PIV-3 and RSV is contingent on the induction of neutralizing antibodies against the major viral surface glycoproteins. For PIV, these protective immunogens are the HN protein which has a molecular weight of 72 kDa and possesses both hemagglutination and neuraminidase activities and the fusion (F) protein, which has a molecular weight of 65 kDa and which is responsible for both fusion of the virus to the host cell membrane and cell-to-cell spread of the virus. For RSV, the two major immunogenic proteins are the 80 to 90 kDa G glycoprotein and the 70 kDa fusion (F) protein. The G and F proteins are thought to be functionally analogous to the PIV HN and F proteins, respectively. The PIV and RSV F glycoproteins are synthesized as inactive precursors (FO) which are proteolytically cleaved into N-terminal F2 and C-terminal F1 fragments which remain linked by disulphide bonds.
Recombinant surface glycoproteins from PIV and RSV have been individually expressed in insect cells using the baculovirus system [Ray et al., (1989), Virus Research, 12: 169–180; Coelingh et al., (1987), Virology, 160: 465–472; Wathen et al., (1989), J. of Inf. Dis. 159: 253–263] as well as in mammalian cells infected with recombinant poxviruses [Spriggs, et al., (1987), J. Virol. 61: 3416–3423; Stott et al., (1987), J. Virol. 61: 3855–3861]. Recombinant antigens produced in these systems were found to protect immunized cotton rats against live virus challenge. More recently, hybrid RSV F-G [Wathan et al., (1989), J. Gen Virol. 70: 2625–2635; Wathen, published International Patent application WO 89/05823] and PIV-3 -HN [Wathen, published International Patent Application WO 89/10405], recombinant antigens have been engineered and produced in mammalian and insect cells. The RSV F-G hybrid antigen was shown to be protective in cotton rats [Wathan et al., (1989), J. Gen. Virol. 70: 2637–2644] although it elicited a poor anti-G antibody response [Connors et al., (1992), Vaccine. 10: 475–484]. The protective ability of the PIV-3 F-HN protein was not reported in the published patent application. These antigens were engineered with the aim to protect against only the homologous virus, that is either RSV or PIV-3. However, it would be advantageous and economical to engineer and produce a single recombinant immunogen containing at least one protective antigen from each virus in order simultaneously to protect infants and young children against both PIV and RSV infections. The chimeric proteins provided herein for such purpose also may be administered to pregnant women or women of child bearing age to stimulate maternal antibodies to both PIV and RSV. In addition, the vaccine also may be administered to other susceptible individuals, such as the elderly.